Assumptions regarding the future of the country

(Posted on 1/20/13 at 6:53 am)

So as a nation we've been discussing gun control in a pretty heated debate the last few weeks. I think two of the main assumptions on the ban guns side are: 1) we have police that protect our lives and property.

2) we have a military that can protect us from invasion.

I then look at another issue that is important to me: the economy flat out sucks and our current government is incapable through lack of knowledge, capability, and leadership to do anything meaningful to help the economy. This means that government revenues (which have historically been ~20% of GDP) must go down or taxes must go up to pay for the things we need.

So then that brings into question "what do we really need and what can we afford?"

I think what we will end up with is less police and a smaller military - has to happen unless we go full socialist in which case you're still going to have a revenue / spending issue.

In a world with less police and less military would we be as safe and would those of you that don't have guns consider learning how to use one and purchasing one?

re: Assumptions regarding the future of the country (Posted on 1/20/13 at 6:59 am to ironsides)

quote:we have police that protect our lives and property.

if they are there to protect us they can protect and do protect us. But the police can only do so much there are some situations that are unavoidable

quote:we have a military that can protect us from invasion.

yes they can we have the strongest military in the world and no country out there right now has a chance to stand toe to toe with us. The biggest threat to the safety of our country is terrorism and crime.

re: Assumptions regarding the future of the country (Posted on 1/20/13 at 7:48 am to ironsides)

Think about this...a category 1 hurricane hit New York and 24 hours later there were people eating out of dumpsters. If a big natural disaster ever happens there (say a cat 3 or bigger hurricane) that place will turn into a scene from Escape From New York. You need to make certain that you have a way to protect yourself and feed your family.

re: Assumptions regarding the future of the country (Posted on 1/20/13 at 8:20 am to ironsides)

quote:Right now everyone is safe.

Everyone?

quote:in the Kelly/Bloomberg era (2002 and after) over half the officers -- 51 percent -- had observed the intentional misclassification of serious crimes as petty offenses and other unethical practices, typically multiple times. Officers also reported that since 2002 they had experienced unusually strong pressures from supervisors to downgrade crimes and keep crime numbers low.

The consequences of downgrading or not reporting crimes can be severe. For example, in 2010 recently retired Detective Harold Hernandez revealed to Village Voice reporter Graham Rayman that a series of sexual assault-robberies in Washington Heights had been downgraded from serious felonies to misdemeanors. As a result, the NYPD missed the crime pattern and allowed a sexual predator to remain at large for at least two months and to commit six more rapes.

quote:There is now a clear message emanating from the top commanders at police headquarters: make many stop and frisks, write many summonses, make many arrests for petty offenses, and downgrade serious crimes. In other words, the NYPD seeks to keep the serious crime numbers low while showing lots of officer activity. The NYPD's 50,000 marijuana arrests, 600,000 summonses, and nearly 700,000 stop and frisks do little or nothing to make the city safer.

re: Assumptions regarding the future of the country (Posted on 1/20/13 at 10:54 am to chalmetteowl)

quote:we should be glad we erased 50 million in the womb... most of those would be the underclass we support indirectly

IDK how we can really be sure about that. Historically, the national unemployment rate is between 5-10%. Even counting the unemployed not on the rolls, it's still not more than 15%. That would be at least 40 million as productive members of society.